Refinery29 elevates Ashley Miles to company's first chief client officer role

Refinery29 has appointed Ashley Miles its first chief client officer, and head of advertising in North America.

Miles, who had most recently been executive vice president of R29's sales and brand partnerships, has now been tasked to oversee and streamline the publisher's advertising sales, marketing solutions and client services teams. Her responsibilities have spanned across all of its ad revenue strategy, as well as collaborating with its global ad sales teams.

Under Miles' tenure, the women's focused site and entertainment platform has attracted key brand partners across beauty, retail, auto, CPG, consumer electronics, financial services, pharmaceuticals and DTC. She also has helped drive collaborations with Reebok and Smirnoff for the company's annual 29 Rooms pop-up festival, as well as with Intuit for its Money Diaries franchise.

Miles has been reporting to R29 cofounders Justin Stefano and Philippe von Borries. Stefano said of Miles: “Over the past five years, Ashley has been a relentless champion of our mission, brand and most importantly, our people. We are excited to broaden Ashley’s scope within the company to tackle new challenges and opportunities with brand partners while continuing to grow and lead one of the best client- and consumer-centric sales and marketing teams in the industry.”

The newly-minted chief client officer added: “My passion is pairing brands’ and agencies’ business objectives with cutting-edge, original ideas that resonate with young women. In my new role, I look forward to driving the types of unconventional advertising strategies that create deeper, more meaningful connections that have a transformative impact on brands and women.”

Miles promotion has come on the heels of two more senior hires for the WPP-backed publisher; earlier this month, Nicholas Butterworth was named executive vice president of its product and development team and Marissa Rosenblum was appointed its senior director of commerce.